I am indeed delighted that my best friend and COO of Sejahtera Leadership Initiative (SLI) & Global Sejahtera, Yazdi Jehangir Bankwala who's currently based in London, could still recall meeting my student Haris, during his post-graduate program at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in KL. In his feedback to my story titled “Haris Tresnjo participating in 2026 Bosnian General Election to decide the composition of multiple levels of government” published by newswav.com on Thursday, 10 September 2026, aptly stated that “Many congratulations… I seem to recall him from your MBA class on HR, where you had given me an opportunity to be an Industry Fellow with a class… I recall … him as he stood out even then… Wishing Haris a great success!”
Other readers, mostly his classmates and batchmates requested to read his political manifesto for the 2026 Bosnian General Election. I replied that “Haris must be busy hitting his campaign trail to meet all levels of people. It must be a challenging time for him in this GE. Considering the situation as a whole, especially with so many things he intends to do, improving and restoring confidence in the business climate, I am reminded of what Charles Dickens once said: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of time.’ Projects must be planned to economize all resources as well as the need to boost policy delivery.”
I think most importantly, Haris needs to do effective listening to truly understand, validate, and connect with others instead of merely delivering speeches. Effective listening enhances trust, collaboration, and productivity in his constituency. SLI research uncovered that the behaviour most strongly correlated with trust to a leader's listening effectiveness. We found that leaders who were rated as poor listeners ranked at the 15th percentile in trust, while those excelling in listening skills reached the 86 percentile in trust. As AI reshapes the world, leaders must modernize, and strengthen competitive advantage.
Zulkifly Baharom (hajizul50@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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